Socialising

Dinner out -- I'm in the purple. (Photo courtesy of AB)

One of the things I love about the holiday season is the socialising. I do love to get out and see people (and eat food, unfortunately!). And of course around Christmas there's a lot more of this going on. So much so that many of us put on weight not just over Christmas but in the lead-up to it.

One of the fun things I did just before Christmas was go to a friend's solstice party. I've been promising myself I'd go for years, but there had always been a conflict with some other event. This year I had heaps of notice (maybe I did other years too, but sometimes it's my lack of organisation in actually chalking things down, or otherwise that I do that and then lose my diary, as I did this year). Anyway, this year I went. Apart from our wonderful hostess, there was only one other writer there, but we all had a lovely night (despite the rain). Not that I'm complaining about rain: oh, no, no, no, no. We want more of that. We truly do. (Though perhaps not the battering that Queensland has been getting.)

A number of the people there were science-types -- mainly engineers, I think. Strange how at one stage of my life I seemed to hang around only with scientists; now I hardly ever do. Now it's mainly writers, though one of my close friends is a scientist (we used to work together), and I do see her often. So it was surprising that a lot of discussion was on literary matters, even on such eclectic topics as word etymology. Yes, really puts aside the education department assumptions they exhibit when they schedule physics against English lit. It's amazing how many maths-science students want to do lit as an "extra" subject but can't because of timetabling. Anyway, the solstice party was a fun night (no dancing naked around fires), and I was glad to have gone.

More recently (ie last Thursday) we had dinner with a neighbour, another writer. So there was lots of discussion about literary things, and some science things as well. And we got to view the latest invention: the daddle! Only Mr B called it a saddle, and when he said he had a saddle I was very jealous. I've always wanted a saddle. And a horse to go with it, of course. There's something about good quality leather, saddle soap and linseed oil that makes me go all gooey inside. I'd like a bridle too. With a snaffle bit. But Mr B's saddle, alas, wasn't leather at all. Very cute though. I'm sure my children were envious because they had to ride bareback and got tossed off quite a lot as I remember. Something about fractious horses too, especially when they're not you're own. When I'm riding, which I haven't done in years, I prefer something quieter and more reliable.

Anyway, we had a yummy dinner, and enjoyed our evening immensely. Summer really lends itself to dinners out, because you can take time to sit outside. Which we did. Our only problem was an interloper. Our cat. Clearly, she thought she should have been invited too, because she made the effort of coming over, and then miaowed all night, until we went home. (Strangely enough the solstice party also had an interloper in the form of a possum.) Anyhow, I think we all had a great time, except perhaps the cat, who I think felt neglected.

Sir Talkalot wearing a daddle. Topsy on top. (Photo courtesy of AB)